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Colne’s high credit rating renewed with flying colours

Tue 05 January 2016

July 4 2016 Update
Standard and Poors’ credit rating for the UK was lowered following the Brexit vote and that means all organisations – including housing associations - linked to this had their ratings lowered .Colne’s has decreased one notch to A+. The outlook for us remains unchanged and we do not anticipate the change will have a huge impact on our business plan.

Essex-based housing association Colne has achieved one of the highest AA- credit ratings awarded in the sector.

The rating – first gained in February 2015 – has just been renewed following a review by the financial services company Standard & Poors.

It is among the highest ratings in the affordable housing sector for the AA- band and Colne’s outlook remains ‘stable’.

Colne’s chief executive Sara Thakkar said this was fantastic news for Colne and its customers. She said: "We are pleased to learn we have one of the highest AA- ratings in the sector. This reflects our financial strength, sound leadership and continued growth in the face of many external challenges.

"This achievement puts us in an excellent position to seize opportunities to continue building great homes for local people in north Essex, Suffolk and beyond."

Sara, who joined Colne a year ago, said the rating could not have been achieved without the hard work of the Colne team including the strong Executive leadership praised by the raters.

Standard and Poors’ report says: "Colne is well positioned to maintain its very strong financial performance and moderate debt levels.

"The stable outlook reflects our base-case expectations of both the likelycontinuity of government support and the stability of Colne's underlying credit quality."